Our teaching faculty is comprised of dedicated, talented, and caring educators. Each of our Lead Teachers holds a Montessori Certification and a minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree, with many holding advanced degrees. As master teachers, the Montessori Children’s House teaching faculty serve as mentors for student teachers, lecturers and advisors for the Seton Montessori Institute teacher certification programs.

Toddler Program
Martha Montoya has been working at MCHNB for over 13 years and is presently the Lead Teacher for the Toddler Program in the morning and C-teacher in the Preprimary Programs in the afternoon and conducts the Spanish Program. Her interest in becoming a Montessori teacher evolved as a result of having her own two daughters attend MCHNB.  She is AMS certified in both Infant-Toddler and Early Childhood levels. Martha feels that the best part of working with children is that they are always full of life and continuously willing to explore and learn. She enjoys observing all the wonderful changes in each child over the course of the year. In her spare time Martha enjoys walking, biking, gardening, volunteering at her church and spending time with her two daughters.

Ivelina Stoyanova serves as Teaching Assistant in the Toddler Program.  Born and raised in Bulgaria, Ivelina moved to the United States as an adult.  Ivelina holds a B.A. in Music Pedagogy and a Masters Degree in Public Relations from Bulgaria.  When she arrived in the U.S. she enrolled at Seton Montessori Institute and earned her Early Childhood Teaching credential and is currently enrolled in the Infant and Toddler Teaching Program.  She believes, as Dr. Montessori believed: “If we compare our ability as adults to that of the child, it would require us sixty years of hard work to achieve what a child has achieved in their first three years.”  Her hobbies are music, photography, traveling, hiking and making artisan bread.

PREPRIMARY PROGRAMS
Rukmal Wanigasinghe serves as the Site Coordinator of MCHNB and Lead Teacher in the AM Half Day and Extended Day Program. She has been with MCHNB for over 25 years. Rukmal spent her childhood and early adult life in her birthplace, Sri Lanka, as well as Nigeria, England, and Sudan, migrating to the United States in 1991. Living and working in different cultural settings has given her valuable experience which she finds extremely beneficial to her current work environment. Rukmal received her Montessori Early Childhood and Elementary Education Diplomas from the Montessori Center International in London, England and her Early Childhood certification through Seton Montessori Institute. Rukmal and her husband, Sudewa, have a adult son who is a MCHNB alumnus. She enjoys meditating, doing community service, reading, cooking and traveling. Rukmal receives great satisfaction in being able to nurture and support the development of initiative, creativity, independence, inner-discipline, and self-confidence in children within the Montessori environment.

Marta Czaja is the Co-Teacher for the AM Half Day and Extended Day Program and has been with MCHNB for over 13 years. Marta was born in the small town of Strzyzow in Poland. She has completed her AMS Early Childhood (ages 3-6) certification and holds a B.A. and M.A. in Pedagogy from the University of Rzeszow in Poland. She also works as a Foreign Language teacher at F. Chopin Polish School in Buffalo Grove IL where she teaches grades 1-6 on the weekends. Marta says her most favorite part of working with young children is witnessing their endless curiosity about the world they live in. Marta finds great joy in being a part of the lives of the children she works with. Marta and her husband have one son currently in college, and in her leisure time she enjoys reading, taking walks and traveling.

“The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon.”

Maria Montessori